BCCI welcomes ICC's approval to revamped structural plan

BCCI welcomes ICC's approval to revamped structural plan

The BCCI has welcomed ICC's decision to approve its revamped proposal, which is aimed at bringing improved governance, financial and competition structures, during the Executive Board meeting in Singapore on Saturday.

Despite strong resentment from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa, the controversial proposal was passed at the Executive Board meeting after gaining the support of eight of the ICC's 10 full members.

"After rounds of discussions over the last three weeks, the proposals were approved without any objection," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told ESPNcricinfo.

"Two members abstained from voting since they felt it wouldn't be prudent for them to take a call without the go-ahead of their respective boards.

"Now that the resolutions are passed, we can move on and the Chief Executives' Committee and ICC Board can continue to work on strengthening the structure of cricket," he added.

'BCCI had no role to play in CSA's so-called change of stance'

The controversial proposal had faced opposition from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa but while the first two countries stayed away from the meeting on Saturday, the latter had a change of heart after Cricket South Africa president Chris Nenzani had a long meeting with BCCI president N Srinivasan.

CSA is the first Full Member to publicly describe the proposals "fundamentally flawed" but they opted to vote in favour of the changes. Patel said that BCCI and CSA are on the verge of clinching a bilateral agreement from 2015 to 2023.

"It was nice to see that they (CSA) have realised the need to support the proposal and the BCCI had no role to play in their so-called change of stance. The BCCI and CSA had fruitful discussions and have almost reached bilateral agreements in the next cycle," Patel said.

'As for Haroon, it is a matter between CSA and ICC'

CSA's decision was very important considering that the proposal to convert FTP agreements into legally binding bilateral agreements required seven votes out of 10 and appointment of a new Executive Committee needed eight votes.

The CSA had asked for the hosting rights for a major ICC event between 2015 and 2023 in a "formal response" written to ICC president Alan Isaac on the eve of the meeting.

There has been a lot of bad blood between BCCI and CSA, reportedly over the appointment of former ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat's as CSA's chief executive but South Africa's decision to support the ICC plan possibly could bring an end to the prolonged tussle between the two boards. However, Patel said there was no patch-up plan with CSA, with regard to Lorgat.

"As for Haroon, it is a matter between CSA and ICC. The BCCI has nothing to do with it and the matter wasn't even discussed," Patel said.